By Kelvin Butler
The NFL has once again changed the number of games, for the third time in the 100 years of the league’s existence. The current 16-game season lasted 32 years, which was the longest game slate streak in the NFL out of the three game slate changes.
The new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) will add a 17-game regular season and a new 14-team playoff format.
The number two seeded teams will play against the newly added seventh seeded teams in the wild card round of the playoffs, now only leaving the number one seeded teams to receive the bye week.
Speaking of bye weeks, they should add an extra bye week inserted into the regular season, since with 17 games, it will reduce the pre-season. But nothing is known about it right now.
As a result of the teams playing one more game, the NFL has expanded the roster size from 53 to 55, with 48 players able to dress for games rather than the current 46. Practice squad sizes would rise from 10 players to 12 and eventually 14, giving more players an opportunity to develop.
The new CBA will also limit the number of padded practices to 16, which is a drastic reduction from the current 28 padded practices.
So, pretty much, us fans will get one more week of football and one more playoff game. In return, the players will receive 48% of the revenue which could potentially climb to 48.5%, giving them the highest percentage of revenue of any American professional sport. Paired with projected revenue growth, the players could net an additional $5 billion.
The league could switch to 17 games as early as 2021 when the new CBA would start, but the league’s proposal currently suggests this change won’t be implemented until 2022. That could change with the new CBA; by then, all the new broadcast contracts will be in place.